Saints: Spatial identities of the citizens of Saint Helena
Figure 5.16 Map fragment of Longwood, Deadwood and Bottom Woods settlementsii
5.2.8
Alarm Forest
The district of Alarm Forest is a recent creation: parts of the districts of Jamestown and Longwood were cut off to create this new district in between. It includes the settlements at the Briars and Alarm Hill, but it does not have a clear centre. It lacks a community centre or a school, and has only a few small shops. It is mainly “on the way from Jamestown to Longwood”. The upper part of the Briars includes quite a few newly-built houses, where a number of relatively rich people live. Cable and Wireless’ headquarters, including the satellite dishes that are the island’s link to the outside world, are at the Briars. Next to these symbols for the island’s future is a memory from the past: the house where Napoleon lived before moving on to Longwood House. It has a well-kept garden and a nice view. Napoleon’s tomb at Sane Valley is also within the Alarm Forest district. This means that a substantial part of the district is in fact French property. If asked where people are from, the Briars is a community which is named. It has its own church. We never heard anyone on the island referring to Alarm Forest other than as an electoral area.
100